chasing rainbows

for the past week, the word on everyone’s lips (especially here in manila) was “milenyo.” wreaking havoc and leaving destruction everywhere in luzon, this storm devastated so many areas. in spite of the fact that it lasted only a couple of hours, milenyo caused extensive damage to infrastructure, agriculture and livelihood.

news of the storm scared a lot of people. almost everybody stayed indoors, afraid to leave the safety of their homes. then power was cut off, and suddenly, even the home was not a place of comfort and refuge. some families had no potable water and no working phone line. some didn’t even have any candles left in their homes. with no electricity, people became restless and edgy. groceries and malls were closed. main means of transport - the lrt and mrt - were shut down. cell phone batteries went dead and mobile networks lost a lot of their cell sites, making communication extremely difficult. hmmm. only a few hours after milenyo passed through, it seemed as if the entire city was thrown back to primitive times.

i heard someone remark, “kawawa naman ang pilipinas, lagi na lang nasasalanta ng ganitong mga bagyo. hanggang kailan kaya tayo ganito? maawa naman sana ang Diyos..”

hmm. think for a moment, though. don’t you wonder what what it is that made this storm so devastating? it’s kinda weird - milenyo was not very “rainy” in as far as storms go. it didn’t last long, either. in fact, by thursday afternoon, the skies were quite sunny again. what made everything so crazy wasn’t the storm, per se, but its aftermath: the blackouts, the debris and the suspension of classes and work. what made things so much worse was that people were not prepared. we’re so used to having storms passing by our area of responsibility that we don’t take storm warnings very seriously. we don’t check our flashlights and candles. we depend so much on technology that we forget how to do our work without the help of our electrical appliances. we simply assume that we’ll always have water to drink and phones to communicate with.

a song by switchfoot goes “oh Lord, why did You forsake me? oh Lord, don't be far away away. storm clouds gathering beside me. please Lord, don't look the other way” i think many would have been able to relate to those lines. but i don’t think God was in hiding these past days. i think, through this storm, He was trying to show us what kind of people we really are.

were we prepared when the storm finally hit.. or were we forced to borrow resources from friends and neighbors? did we try to reach out to others in concern? did we volunteer our help in clearing the streets.. or were we among those hastily clipping off electric cables to sell? did we thank God for electricity, for water and for safety.. or were we continually grumbling about how long it took for power to come back on?

sometimes, we are too busy seeking comfort that we are easily displaced when hard times come. we are too caught up chasing after rainbows that we miss the point: there would be no rainbow without the rain. oftentimes, the Lord uses dark times to bring a lot of things to light. and His promise of a rainbow only came after 40 days of cleansing rain.

“two scared little runaways hold fast to the break of day light where the shadow proves the sunshine”

we don’t have to be afraid. we just need to hold fast in the midst of the storm. because He’s always in control. there’s always a lesson for us to learn. the shadows only prove the Sunshine ü